Interpersonal Gun Violence Research in the Social Work Literature

Interpersonal gun violence remains a major public health issue in the United States and beyond. This article explores the research on interpersonal gun violence published in peer reviewed social work journals since the mid-1990s. Findings from this review indicate that the existing scholarship offers some important insights into this topic, particularly related to risk factors for and the effects of exposure to gun violence. These findings, however, also point to some shortcomings in the literature, including problems with the measurement and analytic treatment of exposure to gun violence and a lack of research with direct victims and perpetrators of gun violence. Implications for future research are discussed.